Shawnee Landing project fades away
%20(2).jpg "Joni Johnson-Godsy, who lives at the end of the road closest
to the proposed development, is an artist who takes photographs of wildlife in the area and fears development will harm the wildlife.")
Disappointment struck again for Shawnee officials who hoped to build out the last empty corner in a busy shopping area near Interstate 435: Developers backed out of a plan to build the Shawnee Landing shopping center late last week.
The 26-acre, $56.3 million project at the southwest corner of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Maurer Road died quietly with a letter from attorney Curtis Petersen, who represents developers SMPW Fund I, LLC.
The letter cited several factors in the decision: Costs of developing the site, less than expected leasing revenue and a “challenging” development schedule.
“Those factors combined to make it difficult to get enough of a return on the investment, the letter said.
“This reality is particularly disappointing to our team as we had anticipated that the requested public financing package would be sufficient to address the inherent challenges of this site, but ultimately that proved not to be the case,” Petersen wrote in the letter, addressed to City Manager Carol Gonzales.
City officials are disappointed, but still hopeful that some development will take place, said city spokesman Dan Ferguson. The city will soon begin to look into some of the other inquiries it has received about that location, he said.
In an emailed statement, Gonzales said, “This is obviously disappointing, given the amount of time and effort that our staff and the developer put into this project. However, at the end of the day, the city has a responsibility to our taxpayers to make sure these types of projects make sense for everyone, including the citizens of our community. This was a tough decision, but was one made after a great deal of careful thought and analysis.
“We still think this area of the city has a great deal of economic development potential and we will continue to examine various potential options as we move forward,” she said.
If it had gone ahead, the project would have included an anchor store, in-line retail and individual pad sites.
The city has been trying since at least 2004 to get that part of the city developed, but has been stymied by the difficult terrain and lack of sewers. As part of this latest development plan, the city was poised to agree to a tax increment financing district as well as special taxing districts for infrastructure.
The city also had agreed to front some of the cost of building the sewers, since lack of a sewage system has been one of the barriers to development. But the sewer system proved controversial with neighbors to the south along Bell Road, who feared the loss of their neighborhood’s picturesque beauty, wildlife habitat and hundreds of mature trees.
They filed suit in district court contesting the county’s decision to go ahead with the sewers. The neighbors also objected to a 55-foot retaining wall overlooking their street.
It remains to be seen whether the county will go ahead with sewer construction.
This story was originally published March 10, 2015 at 1:11 PM with the headline "Shawnee Landing project fades away."